Author: PGGF

Summary: Extremely AU. Rory lives in Hartford, Connecticut with her mother and step-father. Rory's never met her biological father so she refers to Chris as her dad. Chris and Lorelai are very wealthy and kind of stuck up. They've never really shown Rory much affection and keep her shipped off to boarding schools and ritzy summer camps so they don't have to deal with her. Richard and Emily live in Loretto, Kentucky on a farm. Lorelai basically cut them out of her life when she got married and they haven't actually seen Rory since she was very young. They still talk occasionally on the phone, but that's about it. Jess lives with his grandmother and works on Richard and Emily's farm. The backgrounds will be further explained throughout the story. Also, some of the other characters will be featured, but as this is an AU they'll be Kentucky as well. The story is mainly going to focus on Jess and Rory and I'm planning on it being fairly fluffy.

AN: I chose Kentucky for Richard and Emily to live in because that's where I'm from so I'm more comfortable with naming off places nearby that I'll be including in the story. In fact, their house and farm in the story is based on where my family and I lived for the best three years of my life. I've worked really hard on this so I hope you enjoy the story and please review when you've finished.

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Rory Gilmore sat on her bed looking around her room. School had let out for the summer and she had just gotten home from the all girl boarding school she had attended in Pennsylvania for the previous year. One would think that since she hadn't seen her parents in months they would be waiting to greet her with open arms but that was not the way of Lorelai and Chris Hayden. Luckily, they had remembered to send a car to pick her and her things up at the airport. Rory would never forget when she came home to visit for Christmas and they had forgotten to pick her up.

She sat at the airport for hours before a maid finally showed up to take her home. Deep down she had hoped that her parents didn't show up because they were planning a surprise "welcome home for the holidays" party, but they were out of town for the evening.

When Rory was eating breakfast the next morning her mom walked in the kitchen and said, "Rory, what are you doing home?"

"Mom, it's Christmas break. I told you on the phone just last week I'd be home."

"Did you? It must have slipped my mind. Anyway, we're having a Christmas party tonight for your father's office so I'll call Annette and see if she can come over later to do your hair and make up, ok?"

"Do I have a choice?" Rory muttered.

"What was that?" Lorelai asked, finally looking up from her organizer.

Just as Rory was about to answer Chris walked in the room. He walked straight over to Lorelai and kissed her on the top of her hair and grabbing a mug of coffee sat down at the table with the morning paper.

"Hi, Dad," Rory said trying to start a conversation.

Chris looked up shocked. "Rory? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm home for Christmas break."

"Oh. Very well then. How has the 10th grade been treating you so far?" He asked absorbed in the business section.

"I'm actually in the 11th grade, Dad."

"That's great, honey."

"You could at least pretend to be interested in what I have to say," Rory mumbled.

"Rory, we've talked about this before. If you want people to listen to and respect you then you need to stop mumbling," Lorelai said jotting notes down in her organizer.

'Merry Christmas, Rory.' Was all she could think.

Rory had never met her biological father. When her mother was 16, and living in the small town of Loretto, Kentucky, she was desperate to get away. She hated the small town life and wanted more for herself than marrying some local farmer and popping out an army of kids to help man the farm, like all her friends seemed to want. She started dating a guy named Alex from a nearby county and fell prey to his lies of love and ideas of how when she turned 18 they would both get away and move to a bigger city. Instead all that happened was she got pregnant with Rory and then Alex dumped her and moved away. She never heard from him again. The day after Lorelai graduated high school she packed all of her and Rory's things, cleaned out her savings account, and wound up in Connecticut. Lorelai got a job as a waitress and quickly worked her way up to assistant manager while leaving Rory with an elderly woman in their building. When Lorelai was 20 years old she met Christopher Hayden and they married shortly after. Chris was a high powered attorney who was young, good looking, and came from a family full of "old money." Christopher wasted no time in moving Lorelai and Rory into his condo. Lorelai then quit her job at the restaurant and began to attending various social gatherings and organizing charities for Chris' office. Rory always felt like the third wheel around the two of them. They loved each other dearly and just seemed to tolerate Rory. When Rory started middle school, Lorelai and Christopher decided to send her to her first all girls boarding school in Vermont. They kept her away every school year and when she was home for the summer they would let her enjoy about a week to herself before sending her to ritzy summer camps she hated.

As she was looking around her room she began to wonder what summer camp she would be spending the next few months of her life at. She would much rather spend the summer reading in her room, but her parents would never allow that. They were always saying how important socialization was for someone Rory's age. Rory could care less about proper socialization. She was a bit of a loner, but she still had friends and went out on dates occasionally. She just preferred to be with people who weren't so caught up with appearances and money and she hadn't had much luck finding many.

The knocking at her door shook her out of her reverie. "Come in!" she shouted.

"Rory, sweetie, you have a phone call," Carol, the current maid, said.

"Thanks," Rory said taking the phone and wondering who would be calling her on the house phone and not her cellphone. "Hello?"

"Rory! How are you?" Her Grandpa Gilmore's voice boomed into the phone.

"I'm fine, Grandpa. How are you? How's Grandma?"

"We're doin' just fine. Doin' just fine. We were wonderin' if you'd want to maybe come and spend the summer with us on the farm? We haven't seen you in so long and thought it'd be nice to spend some time together before you start your senior year of high school. We know you'll be mighty busy and then before you know it you'll be headin' off to college."

To say Rory was shocked was an understatement. She hadn't seen her grandparents in several years and she was too young to remember living with them for until she was two years old. They talked on the phone a few times a year and they sent her cards for every holiday, but they hadn't visited in years. Lorelai kept in contact with them after moving out, but after she married Chris they didn't talk as much. Rory could recall her grandparents inviting them to the farm on several occasions, but seeing how Lorelai and Chris always declined they eventually gave up. Rory always wanted to go, but Lorelai just said that a farm was no place for a city girl. By the time she turned 10 she stopped asking.

"Grandpa, I would love that. I have to ask mom, of course, but I would love to come stay with you and Grandma for the summer." After the initial shock wore off, Rory could hardly contain her excitement.

"Do you want to ask her or do you want me to?"

"I'll ask her. I'll ask her tonight at dinner and call you back."

"Ok. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye, Grandpa."

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As Rory was eating dinner she was trying to figure out the best way to bring up the subject of going to Kentucky for the summer. Chris was reading from a stack of files next to him and Lorelai was yet again flipping through her organizer, crossing things out and writing other things in. Finally she decided to just go for it.

"Mom? Dad? Could I ask you something?"

After a moment they both looked up at her.

"Grandpa Gilmore called earlier and asked if I wanted to come spend the summer with him and Grandma in Kentucky and I've thought about it and I really want to go."

"Rory, we've been over this. You're a city girl. You wouldn't like living on a farm. Trust me. I spent 18 long years living on one and working on it. It's just not your thing. Besides, I thought you wanted to go to camp again. You always have so much fun."

"No, I don't. I've never liked camp. It's boring and it's full of stuck up people who I have no interest in and they have no interest in me. I spend the whole time talking to like one person or in my cabin reading. This summer is very important to me. It's the summer before my senior year and I know how stressful school is going to be and I just want to take the summer to relax and do my own thing."

"You can do your own thing on a farm in Kentucky?" Chris asked.

"Yes. I think it sounds like fun. I've always wanted to go back there and you never let me before. Please, just let me go now. Please." Rory wasn't above begging at this point. She really did not want to spend yet another summer surrounded by girls who didn't know Steinbeck from Kerouac. She wanted a summer she would actually enjoy for once.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you try it," Chris said.

"Really? You're going to let me go?" She asked looking at Lorelai.

"I guess. I would much rather you go to camp, but we'll see how this works out." Lorelai said before going back to marking in her organizer.

"Thank you. Thank you both!" She shouted, jumping up and surprising everyone, including herself, when she hugged them both tightly and ran to go call her grandparents.

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Two days later she was double checking her bags to make sure she had everything before David, her driver, took her to the airport. On her way out to the car she stopped into the kitchen for a drink when she noticed an envelope with her name on it. Inside it was a note from Lorelai saying that she had a fundraiser to attend that night was out shopping for a new dress and to call when she got to her grandparent's. She said that Chris had already left for the office, but he hoped she had a safe trip and to enjoy doing her own thing for the summer. Also in the envelope was a large amount of cash and a credit card. Stuffing everything back into the envelope and shoving it in her purse, she grabbed a bottle of apple juice, told the new maid goodbye and went out to the car.

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As Rory was walking through the airport in Louisville, Ky, she suddenly realized she wasn't exactly sure if she would recognize her Grandpa. She just stood there looking completely lost when suddenly a huge shadow appeared next to her.

"Rory!"

She turned to the voice and saw a very tall, older man in a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and worn out jeans standing next to her.

"Grandpa..."

That was as far as she got before she was engulfed in his arms and crushed into his chest.

"It's so good to see you. I'm glad you made it. How was your flight? I'm not one for flyin.' Just ain't for me."

"It was fine, Grandpa. I slept most of the way."

"Well, I don't blame you a bit. Now let's grab your bags and get goin.' Emily is cookin' up a storm for you so I hope you're hungry."

"Starving," Rory said. She loved how comfortable she felt around her Grandpa. She had been worried that things would be tense or awkward, but he already made her feel so at home.

"Well, Emily will take care of that."

After they gathered up Rory's bags, Richard led them out to a red Chevrolet Silverado Half-ton extended cab truck. He unlocked the passenger side door and put Rory's bags in the backseat. He then turned to face her and holding out his hand for her to take, helped her into the truck. When he started the engine he turned to Rory and said, "Now that's the way a truck's supposed to sound. I'll tell you right now, you'll be hard pressed to find a better vehicle than a Chevy. I've said it for years and I'll say it again, I'd rather push a Chevy than drive a Ford."

Rory couldn't help but laugh. She could tell that she was going to get along great with her Grandpa. He seemed to really enjoy life and was so comforting to be around. She could only hope her Grandma was the same.

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They had been driving for about half an hour when Richard said, "Now we're comin' into Nelson County here. The main city here is Bardstown. Bardstown is home to My Old Kentucky Home and Stephen Foster - The Musical. There's also vintage trains and museums dedicated to the Civil War, railroads, and several distilleries. If you want, we can go visit all that sometime this summer."

"That would be great."

She loved that they had already made plans for later in the summer.

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Shortly after driving through Bardstown, Rory noticed fewer businesses and the houses got further and further away from each other. Also the roads got a lot curvier. The surroundings took her breath away. There were several trees providing shade for the roads and so many fields full of wildflowers off to the side.

"It's beautiful out here, Grandpa."

"You think it's beautiful now, you should see all of this in the fall when the leaves are changin.' All these years of seein' it and I still can't get over it."

"I can imagine."

"Maybe you can come see it sometime this fall."

"I'd like that. I like that a lot."

"Well, you're welcome here anytime. Anytime, we'd love to have you."

"Thanks."

"And now we're home," Richard said turning off the main road and into a gravel driveway.

Rory looked around. The gravel driveway went on for about half a mile and started out flat, but soon went uphill. As Richard rounded a turn, Rory could see the house clearer. It was a two story old farmhouse sitting on top of a hill. The outside had white vinyl siding with black shutters next to the windows. The front porch was very long and on either end were bright red, wooden swings. There was several yards of green, green grass all around the house and incasing it all in was a wooden fence painted black. In behind the house was a bright red building. On the left of the house and just outside of the fence was a garden. To the right of the house just outside out of the fence was a field full of cows. Rory also noticed several lakes on different parts of the land. It was clear that her grandparent's farm had many acres of land because all Rory could see past the house and the building for miles and miles was rolling, green hills.

"It's a lot to take in a first, but you get used to it pretty quick," Richard said as he stopped the truck.

"It's amazing."

"Well a lot goes on on this farm. We have cows, horses, chickens, goats, and pigs. We also raise our own tobacco crop. And you can see our garden right there. You can't see it now, but in the field behind the garden and all those trees is a lake that we swim in. But we can go on the full tour later. Now let's get inside and get some food," he said getting out of the truck and coming around to help Rory out. He grabbed her bags and lead the way over to a side door and as soon as he opened it Rory's nostrils were flooded with the most amazing smells she had ever encountered. They entered into a small room where they paused to take their shoes off before stepping through and into the living room. Richard sat her bags down next to the couch and led her into the kitchen. As soon as she stepped in she saw her Grandma hovering over several pots on the stove.

Rory hoped she was at least half as friendly as she looked, and taking in a deep breath, she said, "Hi, Grandma."

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Please review and let me know if I should continue this. Jess should be introduced in the next chapter. I proofread this twice and if I missed anything, I'm sorry.